This is a perfect example of why I like triathlons. If I were to do only one thing for exercise, I'd become incredibly bored. But with a sport that has three disciplines, I get to break up the monotony and take a break from one activity while concentrating on another. It seems to suit my propensity to be uber-dedicated to something, to the point where I need to take a break from it after a time.
So earlier this year, when it was prime running and biking season, swimming took a seat on the back burner. True, I had intended to swim more in open water, but week after week, for one reason or another, it just never worked out. I didn't worry about it too much, because I knew that running and biking would be taking a back seat during the winter, and that would be prime season to returning to swimming.
Now that a few stars have aligned for swimming again (essentially finished with the long bike & run workouts, and having something to track laps with), I'm motivated again to be hitting the pool.
Tonight I started where I left off, swimming basically a miles worth (36 laps). Last winter I did a mile 2-3x per week, in an effort to get to the point where it was a relatively easy workout, because once the weather warmed up in the spring, I wanted to be able to concentrate on cycling and running in prep for the half iron. This winter, however, will be a little different, in that now I have to work up to 2.4 miles. To add another variable to the mix, I'll be in a wetsuit for the full iron, and swimming in a wetsuit is considerably easier than without one. Due to that, I'm figuring that having to swim 2.4 miles in a pool - 86 laps - will be unnecessary. Which is fortunate. Truthfully, swimming is boring enough. Swimming in a pool for 86 laps is almost as bad as running or biking indoors. I say 'almost' because at least with swimming you are still moving - as opposed to rollers, a stationary bike, or a treadmill.
Anyhow, as I was driving to the pool, there were two things I wanted to make sure I put attention to - not over-reaching (which tends to result in me hooking to one side when in open water), and to experiment with slightly higher arm turnover. Ever since I started incorporating the two-beat kick in June, I've been paying more attention to the mechanics as opposed to pace - and as a result the glide portion has been a tad extended in order to give myself that extra bit of time for self analysis after every power-generating portion of the stroke. But now, I figured, I might be at the point where I can try to increase arm turnover a bit in an effort to see if that would help increase pace.
Unfortunately, that goal came and went. In fact, I had to sit here for a minute to remember what the second goal was that I thought of on the way to the pool. I did do a better job of remembering to not over-reach though. In the end, there were a couple other mechanical aspects I toyed around with as I noticed what I perceived to be aspects of my form that were inducing drag. The first was quickening the motion of breathing from my left (vanilla) side. Since I'm more comfortable breathing from the right-hand side, I believe that when I turn my head to the left, drag increases. There are two possible reasons - either my mechanics are not as streamlined from that side, or I am slower to take a breath because I am not as sure of myself with regards to grabbing air instead of a mouthful of water.
Another aspect I experimented with was placement of the right hand during breathing from the left side. Again, since I'm not as comfortable with the left side, I unconsciously push down with my right hand a bit in order to prop up my head. Instead of putting energy to move forward, I'm putting energy into moving upward - which is a no-no. So all in all, it comes down to getting more comfortable with breathing from the left side - but just looking at two particular aspects of it that need work.
Which leads me to a particular gripe I have with swimming - at some point you get to where miniscule differences in form start becoming more significant in terms of things that slow you down. The problem with that is that it can be very difficult to tell whether a small change results in any improvement - who is to say that the last lap of 50 yds done at 51.3 with the form experiment in place is faster (due to the change) than the previous lap done at 51.6 without the experiment? Three tenths of a second isn't much for a 50 yd lap - but taken cumulatively over the course of 2.4 miles, it adds up - not to mention energy savings. So anyway, thats a long winded way of saying that although I experimented with those things, I have no idea at the moment whether they are an improvement or not.
In the end, I ended up doing an extra 50 yds, because for some reason around lap 19 the button apparently did not get pushed, and the lap time for that one was like 1:45.
Total Distance: 1850 yds
Total Time: 32:06
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